Video: Shropshire baker uses television show recipes to inspire new products
Shropshire baker Jon Swift has found fame for his role in a BBC television show that has been watched by nearly three million viewers – and has been inspired to create new breads from old ideas.
Jon, of Swifts Bakery, based in Clee Hill, is one of four taking part in Victorian Bakers on BBC2.
The last of the three-part series will air on Tuesday and has been an education for Jon, 35, about the conditions his forebears had to live with everyday.
Jon, who is the fifth generation to be involved with the south Shropshire family business which was founded in 1863 by his great, great, great aunt Hannah Swift.
"It's all a little surreal," he said. "We've had people stop the vans and come into the shop to say it's a fantastic show."
He said in the final show they will move on to the turn of the century when baking was becoming more recognisable and less of a gruelling experience than earlier in the 19th century thanks to the introduction of gas ovens and electricity.
"We watched the earlier shows and I said to the others it was actually worse than it came across.
"They couldn't show it all, it could have been darker – but I suppose they have to be entertaining as well."
He said he had now introduced new loaves closely replicating the ingredients and techniques used by his ancestors – "sponge and dough" breads Clee Hill Cob, a white seeded loaf sprinkled with wheat flakes, and Quarry Cob, made using Shropshire wholemeal flour and named after the nearby granite quarries overlooking nearby Ludlow.
He said: "These sponge and dough breads were originally produced as a cheap, staple food that would have been essential, especially for the very poor working classes of the Victorian era.
"I'll always remember the look of 'I've just been to Heaven and back' on the face of my fellow Victorian Baker John Foster, when we were filming and he had just smelled the first successful batch of loaves.
"We will respect tradition by using the same long fermentation processes but I'm sure the newer versions will bring something fresh and appealing to the table for our modern day customer.
